100th Episode Special: Insights from Healthicity’s Compliance Leaders

We’re thrilled to announce a major milestone for Compliance Conversations – our 100th episode!  

Over the years, we’ve had the privilege of hosting industry experts to hear their invaluable perspective on best practices, trends, and real-world scenarios in compliance and auditing. This special episode is a celebration of our journey and the incredible community that’s made it possible! 

Join CJ Wolf MD, Debi Behunin (Healthicity Vice President of Product), Brian Burton (Healthicity Chief Compliance and Privacy Officer), Remo Peshkepia (Healthicity Product Manager), and Sarah Crane (Marketing and Brand Manager) for insider insights on: 

  • The evolution of compliance and auditing. 
  • Key milestones for Healthicity, including Audit Manager and Compliance Manager developments. 
  • Insights from the Healthicity team on where compliance is headed. 

Thank you for being part of this journey! Here's to many more episodes of helping you navigate the complex (and interesting!) world of compliance. 


Episode Transcript


CJ: Welcome everybody to another episode of Compliance Conversations. I'm CJ Wolf with Healthicity and I have a lot of friends from Healthicity here today; because this is a special day, this is a special episode I should say; this is our 100th episode on the podcast! My goodness, am I getting old Sarah or what?  

Sarah: It's pretty amazing! We've made this many episodes!  

CJ: Yeah, and thanks to all of these wonderful folks here and all of the listeners and all of our other guests that we've had over the years, it's turned into something really good. And I was looking at the Healthicity webpage and the resources webpage, and you can filter by podcasts and just looking through some of the guests we've had and the topics and it's really turned into something great, just incrementally, it's like, you know, by small and simple things, great things will happen.  

So, we're excited to celebrate our 100th episode, and to do that, I've mentioned we have some wonderful folks from Healthicity to help us talk about history, where we've been, where we're going, some good things. So, we're going to just have everyone introduce themselves first. We're going to start just briefly, Sarah, then Remo, then Debi, and then Brian. And then after the introductions, Sarah's just going to give us a little bit of a brief history lesson or a little background on Healthicity. So, why don't we start with Sarah on the intros first?  

Sarah: Yes, I'm Sarah Crane, and I'm the marketing and brand manager and I'm based out of Spring Branch, TX.  

Remo: Hi everybody! Remo Peshkepia. I'm the product manager for Compliance Solutions for Compliance Manager, joined Healthicity back in 2014, and currently in Salt Lake City.  

Debi: Hi, I'm Debi Behunin. I'm a registered nurse and a certified coder and I'm the manager of the Audit Manager solution. And I've been here for about 3 years and loved every minute of it.  

Brian: Hello everyone! My name is Brian and I’ve been with Healthicity now for a little over four years, so since 2020, and I helped manage the compliance program and our advisory services.  

Sarah: Well, I will go ahead and talk a little bit about the evolution of Healthicity and some key areas of recognition that we've seen over the years. So, Healthicity did launch in 2015 and a lot has changed since then. You know, we started as a small company, sharing office space with AAPC, and now we're a global company with team members in the US and international, and I joined the company in 2016. So, I still remember sharing that office space with AAPC, and I know a couple of you do as well.  

We've done everything from successfully completing 3 SOC Type 2 examinations and SOC stands for system and organization controls and I know that that's something, Brian, that you're personally very proud of and we are as a company as a whole and you know on the other side of the gamut, we've created 2 cartoon series that some of you know them as Ada and Carl that illustrate and you know kind of point at the obscurities and the humor in compliance and auditing professionals jobs and I'm the artist that gets to work on those, so, that's kind of fun to get to talk about those a little bit.  

And this podcast, as CJ was saying, it's been a huge part of our journey as well as we've invited guests and interviewees from various industries and specialties to take part in meaningful conversations about the very important roles that compliance officers and auditors and coders play every day. So, with CJ behind the mic, it's been amazing to hear insights and challenges and success stories from people around the healthcare space, as this industry has continued to evolve. And as that industry has had to evolve, so have we. So, I'm excited to hear what Debi and Remo and Brian are going to say, how we've kept up with that evolution. So, thank you! And looking forward to hearing everyone.  

CJ: Thanks so much, Sarah! So just to kind of let everyone know where we're going to go with the episode today. We're going to start talking about Audit Manager, ask some questions, learn some things from Debi. Then we will turn to Remo and learn more about Compliance Manager. And then last but not least, we will talk with Brian about advisory services and some other things, and maybe we'll throw some other surprises in there. I don't know, we'll see; whose dog will bark! Who's a kid will walk in the door! You know, we all have things working that way, and it's fun. It's okay! We're all living life.  

So, let's start Debi with Audit Manager and what a wonderful resource and product that this is for Healthicity's clients. Let's hear from you, telling us a little bit, how did this thing even come to be? Where did it sprout from?  

Debi: Well, Audit Manager originally began development in 2015 and it was a product that that was built by AAPC for their own personal auditors. So, it really started out as an internal program just to support the new auditing services group that they had formed. Out of that, when it continued to evolve, it became apparent that the industry really needed a tool. And so, we decided we might as well sell the tool for those that did not want to hire somebody, at least the tools provided, and it's grown tremendously since then. We have clients of all sizes and all different types of providers. And it's just really exciting, but its roots are in AAPC and the audit services group.  

CJ: Isn't that how usually good products come about? Is there some need out there and someone's trying to fill a need and that's really the truth here, is that's how it started. Yeah, I don't know. I think they still use it too.  

Debi: Oh, they do 

CJ: I think it's an outstanding tool. The interesting little fact on how that developed. So, tell us Debi a little bit about where is Audit Manager now? meaning like, what's it offering for folks now?  

Debi: Well, we are actually on the brink of launching a new product, Audit Manager, I said a minute ago was originally developed in 2015 and developed with the technology that was popular and friendly and usable at that point in time. And as we all know; technology is gone in a year and it's totally antiquated. Well, we're what, 6 years into it, seven years into it. And so, we've spent the last two years rebuilding the technical infrastructure behind Audit Manager and upgrading it to the most current software platforms and systems.  

We've spent a lot of time this last year working on performance and trying to increase the response time of individual pages and we've been successful in doing it and that's been like a long-standing problem, was to get that kind of thing resolved. And so, this new technically advanced product is great, but the new product, it's going to bring some really exciting things to the market and things that I'm really excited about, you know, CJ, I started out my career working with payers, and so all of those years that I worked with payers, some 20 years, I always assumed that there were tools as good as what payers have to make sure that their claims and data is correct before it goes for payment. And what I've been surprised to learn is there's not and so from my perspective as a healthcare provider, I'm really excited to be able to do that. And we're actually going into this new phase of a new product that was that's really important and it's exciting to announce.  

CJ: Yeah, that is exciting. So, you may have shared a little bit of this already, but why was a new product built? Is it mainly because of the technology has advanced and those sorts of things or is there anything else on that one?  

Debi: Oh no, there are lots of other reasons. When I first came, the things that our clients were saying was, you know; "We need to be able to audit a coder and a provider at the same time. So, that we look at a medical record once, but can record results for each one of those." The old Audit Manager had a lot of clicks and saves within the audit box and, you know, while it did its job and still continues to do its job, it wasn't as efficient as it needed to be. So, we've completely rethought the way that the audit box works, which is that's the main tool that an auditor used, that's where they record all their stuff.  

The other thing that people kept asking for is; "We need the ability to customize the rules, customize the scoring, customize the errors." And so, we've built all of that into this. Basically, we looked at all the issues that our clients had submitted and took all of them, put them together and defined a new product, and it's taken us a good two years plus to build it, but it really incorporates all of those things we've been being asked to do. Not everything, of course, but a lot.  

CJ: Yeah! And you know, having been around for a long time, interacting with Healthicity and I've seen this Remo on Compliance Manager too, that will get to, you listen to customers, you listen to what their needs are and you adjust. And I think that's really cool, because compliance needs change and you learn from what the end user needs, right? It's like we can sit in our ivory tower and try to think this is what somebody needs, but no, what somebody needs is that person on the front line. What do they need? So, I really appreciate having watched kind of that evolution of the products.  

So, tell us then, where is Audit Manager going? What does its future hold?  

Debi: Our official launch of the new product is going to be in January 25 and that's a cool goal. But right after that happens, we're going to start on a new module that supports provider rebuttals and disputes. And really what that's going to do is it's going to allow an organization, instead of sending paper reports to providers or printed documents, which is what most of our clients do now, providers will be able to log in, maybe with an auditor or by themselves, and review their audit results. And what's important about that is they'll have the ability to say; "I agree with this one" or ask questions, you know, but online it gives them the ability to record their feelings and what they are concerned about and what education they need and it gives you an audit trail so that maybe in the future you go back and remember; "Hey, I had that problem before, what was the answers that I was given about how to do that?"  

One of the things I didn't mention is that Audit Manager, the current product, only audits at the chart level. So, everything's recorded by chart, not individual line. And so, one of the other things we did is we moved it down, so that you can now record comments at the line level, at the chart level, and the audit level. So, then when the provider is responding, he's looking at the actual codes that have a problem and then responding on that line and it will make it much easier and much less confusing to the reviewers to be able to understand what's going on.  

So, that's really what we consider, you know, the next big thing and piece of it that will actually eventually incorporate graphs and stuff for providers so they can see their trends, what they're doing over time. So, I'm really excited about that, but our clients tell us all the time that we need that. So, that's exciting to be able to get on. We've already designed it, now we're just got to finish our current work and then we'll get on to that.  

CJ: Yeah, that is exciting. So, it kind of, it's going to improve communication and kind of transfer of knowledge and I could totally see how that is going to be very beneficial. And I didn't probably start with this but for those who don't know anything about Audit Manager just real quick, so it helps audit professional services but also facility services, right? Can you shed a little light on that real quick? 

Debi: Yeah, that was the other big thing we did. We've primarily audited professional services. And we have a few dental clients that will repurpose field. But the other thing we did is we incorporated everything for UB-04, for HCFA 1500, and a dental claim. So, now you can completely audit the whole gamut of services. Any kind of institutional claim or facility claim, in addition to the dental and the professional. So, that's another really exciting expansion that will really help round out the value that it brings and clients can still continue to purchase just the professional piece if that's all they want, or the dental piece if that's all they want. So, it's a much more robust product, so you're only installing and communicating with one, a lot of our clients send us claims automatically every night, but we don't want them to have to build interfaces to three vendors. So, that's why we really needed to do this to get it to the point where we can do everything. And so that's another thing didn't even think to talk about that one. There are too many!  

CJ: Yeah! Well, I just thought about it as you were talking, just cause I was thinking big picture and when I first started, you know, back when it launched 2015, and I knew what could be done and what couldn't be done. And so, I've just seen this intense and great improvement over the years. And so that's exciting to see and hear.  

Brian: Yeah, I was going to, CJ, if I could, I would like to just say thank you to Debi. She has brought just this wealth of knowledge from the auditing and coding perspective into the product and really helped the team really understand what do we need to do with Audit Manager? How do we best listen to our current clients? How do we improve that process for them? And it shows in dividends how many clients are using the solution. How the product has grown over the years, not just the product but the number of clients we have and I think that's a testament to a lot of Debi's work and contributions to improving the overall solution.  

CJ: Yeah, absolutely! 

Debi: Well, I love it. I love being able to contribute to the health, the health of the health care system! Didn't mean it really that way! But that's really how I look at it. You know, payers have a lot of tools, and providers need just as many to get their claims into the payers and get them paid the very first time and reduce the number of denials. That's just administrative costs none of us need. So, I'm excited to be able to do it.  

CJ: Absolutely! And as we, I'm going to ask you kind of one more question Debi, and maybe this will kind of transition into talking about Compliance Manager too, is you know, Healthicity is thinking about all sorts of things, not just audit but compliance. How does compliance and audit work together in an organization, right? Like, I know you know, having worked in house as a compliance officer, I have my thoughts on how that works. But tell us a little bit from your perspective. 

Debi: Well, it's really fun because, Remo, you can probably help me out a little bit on this. But Audit Manager and Compliance Manager share, they're separate software applications, but they share an API that goes back and forth between them. So, you can do audits and audit manager and then you can send the results of those audits to Compliance Manager and so your compliance team is actively looking and seeing what's happening, what are the providers' coding scores, that kind of thing. So, it's an integrated piece, you don't really manage the audit process, but you're seeing the outcomes of it. And auditing is part of the compliance program. I mean, that's just the way it is. You do it to make sure that you're doing all the right things and complying with the law. But also making sure you're giving the highest quality patient care.  

CJ: Excellent! 

Debi: Remo, did I forget anything?  

Remo: No, that covers everything. I don't even need to...  

Debi: Oh! Thank you!  

CJ: He says he doesn't need to say anything, but we are going to turn to him momentarily after a quick break. So, we're going to take a quick break everybody and kind of then transition into Compliance Manager a little bit. So, hang with us for a few seconds or minutes and we'll be right back!  

Welcome back, everyone from the break! We've just talked with Debi quite a bit about Audit Manager and we had a nice segue there that, you know auditing and the work that's in Audit Manager is a part of a compliance program. And so, it makes sense to kind of segue now into Compliance Manager, which is another excellent tool that Healthicity offers and Remo, you have been like the go-to man on Compliance Manager as long as I've known. And, so excited to have you here.  

Remo: Thank you!  

CJ: So, Remo tell us how the products integrate and work together. What are your thoughts on that topic?  

Remo: Well, the first thing I think I'd say is that the reason they integrate in the 1st place is because we had a client need clients and Compliance Manager were, you know, requesting or expressing a need to have insight or some visibility into, as Debi mentioned, what's happening with the provider audits of course as you mentioned, they're not, you may not be managing them, but you want some insight into that. So, from a high level, that's what Compliance Manager does in this interface is you as a compliance professional could go to our reporting in Compliance Manager and see the results of pass-fail rates, for example by provider, by practice, location, a number of other elements, but the other thing that comes to mind for me is just in my experience before Healthicity, coming to Healthicity, I worked most recently before that in provider relations and doing provider audits and provider education on documentation and that sort of thing. And the thing that always comes to mind for me when I think about that in interacting with the providers is show me, any time that I, you know, communicated a result of an audit, they'd say; "Well, show me. What am I doing wrong? Show me, specifically!" And this report that Audit Manager generates is fantastic for that because it's a very detailed report. It has high-level results, but then it also gives specific detail on where for example you might be missing documenting the services you're providing at a particular level.  

So, the way that Compliance Manager helps with that communication is there is an attestation tool and Compliance Manager, so when the audit is completed in Audit Manager, that report migrates over to Compliance Manager. So, if I'm managing compliance, I can communicate the results of that audit to providers, for example through an attestation, and have their acknowledgment of receipt of the detail of that.  

CJ: Yeah! And that's such an important part of compliance programs is making sure that you know those communication loops are closed and documented.  

Remo: Yeah! And of course, you end up meeting with them if there's a failed audit, for example, maybe do some additional education. But you know, all of that every time I think of another step that you have to take; I think of another tool in Compliance Manager that you can use to accommodate that. So, scheduling and auditing Compliance Manager, you can do that from Compliance Manager and have it migrate over to Audit Manager, and have the auditor start doing a re-audit, for example, or periodic audit on that provider. So, a lot of tools in Compliance Manager to deal with the results of that sort of thing.  

Debi: You know, Remo, well, one of the things that that I've seen over the last year is that probably a majority of our clients from Audit Manager perspective are requesting reports that are specifically built for the compliance team and organization. So, they want specific data organized in specific ways where when I came three years ago that wasn't a big deal, but in the last, about year and a half, we have built report those types of reports. And most of our clients who use our premium reporting package, that's one of their primary goals, create a report that meets the specific needs of the compliance committee, that's the better way to put it, right?  

CJ: Yeah, yeah!  

Remo: That's awesome!  

CJ: Brian! 

Brian: I was just going to say, Debi, you're exactly right, understanding and this changes from organization to organization, not every compliance committees are like fingerprints, they're all a little different and their interests are a little bit different. And so, enabling our premium reporting to meet those needs of our individual clients is a tremendous value and benefit.  

CJ: So, Remo, you've been around since the inception of Compliance Manager, you haven't aged a day though. But just as good as you did...  

Remo: I have no response to that!  

CJ: As good as you did that back then?  

Brian: Super fun fact, and I'm so grateful for Remo too. He is our longest-tenured employee at Healthicity and another fun fact I have known him since 2016, almost 10 years now or a little over 8 years. We've worked together on a lot of things, a lot of projects, and it's an absolute blessing to have him overseeing the compliance manager product and bringing all of his valuable insights to that tool, his ability to understand the clients' needs, and then transmit that into a functional design inside Compliance Manager has been invaluable since he's been in the product management role and we are ever grateful for his contributions. 

CJ: Yes, ditto! Absolutely! And because... I'm sorry, please!  

Debi: No, I was going to say, you know, I was privileged enough to watch him take over the role, as the product manager. He was kind of doing it a little bit before that, but he's just done a great job. You really have Remo and it's fun to watch you succeed and the product get better. So, hats off to you.  

Remo: Thank you, Debi. It's awfully kind, thank you! Fun fact for me is from that point of working with Brian in 2016, is when I did start aging the most. I've enjoyed every minute of it.  

CJ: Yeah! Brian has that effect on people, I guess!   

Brian: Well, we share that it's I think it's a common trait amongst compliance professionals.  

CJ: I agree! 

Brian: CJ just shaved his head instead of going gray.  

CJ: That's exactly right! So, you know, Remo, because you have been there since the inception. What's your observation on how Compliance Manager has changed since its inception?  

Remo: Yeah! Well, when I joined Healthicity, it was called Seven Atlas for short time, so it's grown, of course, quite a lot since then, primarily in the interface itself. It's a much more user-friendly interface.  

CJ: That's right! 

Remo: But when I think about how Compliance Manager has changed and evolved, I think 1st about why, and that's certainly because, well, a couple of things, our client base has certainly grown and is more varied from when we started, you know, the tool from the start has always been the goal of it, one of the goals is to be a comprehensive compliance tool.  

So, in the beginning, I know a lot of and I recall a lot of provider offices, smaller offices sort of contacted us and needed a compliance tool in place very quickly which is something the tool was able to give them. But of course, we've grown quite a bit since then not only in the number of clients but also the types of clients, so much more varied sort of client base and we learn a lot from those different types of clients of course, because they have different sorts of needs.  

So, the why is really about expanding our client base and also just the expressing needs of our clients and you know we stay very engaged with our clients and I'm so grateful to them that they stay engaged with us because they provide us a lot of detailed use cases that enable our tool to grow and to accommodate those specific needs that they're expressing. So, that's kind of the why, it's always, you know, to accommodate our clients' needs and make their compliance sort of world a simpler world to deal with, if that's even possible in healthcare compliance.  

But the way it's evolved is of course we've expanded on some of those initial offerings that we included in seven outlets and Healthicity's Compliance Manager, which covered all the seven elements, but we've expanded some of those, for example, in 2020 we expanded and redesigned really our incident management tool, making it a much more user-friendly tool and adding some additional features that allowed customization of workflows and in you know templates for example creating different templates for different incident type.  

Again, based on client feedback, we've added a HIPAA security risk assessment tool. Late 2022, more recently, or 2023, we included a public incident reporting tool to allow, for example, patients, vendors etcetera at your sites to report incidents directly to Compliance Manager. Earlier this year added in application document editing tool. So, all of those things, of course, based on client feedback and client need.  

CJ: Yeah, absolutely! And you know, since you've been working with the product so long, I'm curious, do you start dreaming in the teal color that we market? 

Remo: It happened a long time ago!  

CJ: Or you dream you're stuck in the Compliance Manager universe or something or kind of like Tron, remember that old movie from the 80s? 

Remo: Yes, that's exactly where I am.  

CJ: Perfect! That's a good place, we want you there! So, anything else? So, you talked about how it's changed since its inception, but anything else maybe on how that evolution of Compliance Manager has gone, how and why has it evolved? Or do you feel like you've kind of addressed that?  

Remo: Mostly I think you know, again, I always think in terms of evolution, is having coming out of having come out of implementation for the product and talk to so many different clients and different types of clients, my mind always goes to those specific situations that they've expressed and oftentimes you know their need is shared amongst other clients. That happens a lot of course.  

So, it's evolved really based on just our client interaction and their express needs. And we have a number of tools for them to communicate that we have a feedback tool that we monitor and manage that I actually manage, but we have monthly user group meetings, of course we and I talked to clients directly all the time. So, that sort of feedback is really how we continue to change and evolve. Especially with healthcare compliance, I can't imagine this tool ever being sort of a complete tool. It's always growing and evolving.  

CJ: Exactly! It is and that's I think again, I mentioned it before, it's I think one of the strengths of Healthicity is listening to the clients and seriously listening and saying; "Okay, yeah that will improve!" And just like all of us if we always ask, you know, I spend some time in the classroom and I teach and I say; "Students if you have a question, there are probably 20 other people who have that same question they're afraid to ask," so if a client has a request that you're probably not the only one who has that request. So, listening is really important.  

Okay, now get your crystal ball out and your tea leaves, and tell us where is compliance manager headed as much as you know. And then maybe you take a step into the unknown, I don't know! 

Remo: Sure! Well, so on the sort of near horizon, we're working now to incorporate a two-way communication between incident reporters and those that are managing incidents for example, and vice versa. We're designing a HIPAA breach risk assessment tool and you know we're always doing this, of course, because reporting is such an important aspect of compliance and managing your compliance. We want to provide more reporting options including some more customization of reports and that sort of thing.  

On the far horizon, you know, we're always working to improve our clients' experience. So, we want to provide you know, to simplify things, more options for integration continue to simplify workflows and again to provide more customization options. Customization comes up a lot in our communication, again because they're we have such a varied client base. And of course, AI is on everybody's mind and I think, you know, there are things that we can use that for that are in my mind, are sort of in the safe category with healthcare compliance like maybe incident hotline intake and that sort of thing, is one idea. But I think with compliance, healthcare compliance in particular, I think we just have to be really careful about anything in relation to automation and how we think about automating workflows. So, that's always on our mind too. We're kind of figuring how to best incorporate that to serve our clients as well.  

CJ: Yeah! So, will you let me know when AI is ready to take over the compliance officer role, so I can go fish a little bit more often.  

Remo: I just made a note of that.  

CJ: Okay, good! Excellent!  

Brian: CJ, I think that's closer than we think! 

CJ: Okay, good! Well, that's good cause I'm getting older. Thank you, Remo, for sharing that. We're going to take another quick break, everybody. And when we come back, we're going to talk with Brian a little bit about advisory services and some other things, so hang with us for a little bit. We'll be right! 

Welcome back from the break, everybody. We've been having a great conversation. We've talked about Audit Manager, Compliance manager, what about Advisory Services from my good friend and colleague, Brian.  

Brian, welcome and tell us what our Advisory Services, what is that?  

Brian: Well, it is essentially consulting, right? So, we have in it, in support of our two primary products of Audit Manager, Compliance Manager, we've always maintained a little bit of a small team of professionals that can help where necessary. But it's essentially consulting, right? So, it's an opportunity for us as Healthicity step into a role and help a client with a particular compliance or auditing function where we might be able to assist or add additional resources to a compliance team to fulfill a particular purpose or need.  

And, so essentially, it's a small consulting practice within the business that we will grow and have the intention to grow significantly over the coming year and grow, add more resources, and make ourselves available to assist clients as they grow.  

CJ: Yeah, and that's great because I know you personally, you have experience as a compliance officer and now kind of on the service end of things helping others and there's lots of wonderful people there that have that expertise. You know, one thing that just pops into my mind, tell me if this is still kind of falls under advisory services, you know, Remo, we have the HIPAA security risk assessments. We have a module in Compliance Manager, but sometimes organizations or clients aren't comfortable with doing all that themselves and they want somebody with experience who's done that, and that may be an example, Brian and or Remo, you can correct me if I'm wrong, where you could use the product. Also, you could engage advisory services. Is that a good example?  

Brian: It is, and we've used that a number of times where current compliance manager clients need assistance with that HIPAA security risk assessment. As we look at those administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, the number of controls there is enormous, right? It's a fun project to take on the review of all three safeguards within your organization and we have certainly helped a number of clients utilize the tool, document the controls and their evidence, and then develop the corrective action plan required for anything that might come up.  

Other things that we do, we've done several compliance program assessments or compliance effectiveness reviews. We've done maturity assessments, helped with policy development, the audit structuring, your annual audit plan, or maybe just the overall compliance program, and then we've even, you know, in the last year or so, we've even been, you know, called out to visit on-site and conduct, you know, special investigations. You have a really unique and complex scenario and the compliance team needs an objective third party to come in and look at a particular issue. And we've done that a number of times.  

And then the other thing, and it's relatively new and I've got a couple of clients that I work with, but we offer a mentorship program where we have a certain number of hours per month where we just become that resource, that sounding board to that new compliance professional who's joined, you know, they're been in the healthcare industry for years and years and years, but they just got elected to be compliance officer and they're learning, they know their job and they're learning compliance at the same time and Healthicity and our team is here to help those individuals make that transition because it can be difficult to wear multiple hats, especially when you're looking at developing a robust compliance program that includes, you know, four to six audits a year. And then you got to report to the executive committee and the board of directors and your; oh, yeah, by the way, I got to also do my quality job or my chief nursing officer job and I'm doing all these compliance activities at the same time and it can be stressful, right? And that's what we're here to help. You know, not only with user-friendly tools and resources through Audit Manager and Compliance Manager, but we also want to be your resource for developing policies or conducting an investigation or maybe you need that object objective compliance program assessment.   

CJ: Yeah, I like that mentorship, you know, all of us needed that at some point in our career. And you said that the person got elected, they probably didn't even know they're running for that office, so they probably were voluntold that they would be the new compliance officer. We all find ourselves. It's relatively young career still in the grand scheme of careers. And so, you find people with skill sets and you're like; "Hey, I think you'd be good as a compliance officer!" So, glad that there are mentorship opportunities for those of us who are just starting off and need some guidance.  

Anything else that you might want to share about how an organization could utilize Healthicity other than what you've mentioned?  

Brian: Well, I think one of the unique things and I talked to a client the other day, and if anyone's interested, CJ and I have done a number of webinars about the balance between cyber security and compliance and I talked to a client the other day who was looking to understand what is their IT security department doing and how could we maybe help them execute a tabletop exercise. And so that's something else that we can help with and is to help your organization execute a tabletop exercise where we run through a mock scenario of this event happened, how is the team going to respond and manage that event and what corrective actions and responses and reporting might be required as a result of?  

CJ: Yeah, smart, smart! I love it! Any other, like, case studies or references that you think you might... 

Brian: That's fantastic! Yes, Sarah and I and the marketing team are working on a new case study. We've got the final draft floating around amongst our internal team right now. It is a case study on a compliance program effectiveness review or compliance program assessment, where we looked at the seven elements of an effective compliance program using both the OIG's GCPG and the DOJ information to really understand how, if you know is this program, is it on paper or is it a living, breathing compliance program that the members of that workforce understand how to use, how to report? Does the organization receive that information appropriately and are the appropriate investigative steps taken and what corrective actions are implemented?  

And so, one of the things that we'll see shortly, maybe in a week or two, Sarah might be able to give us some idea on the timing, but we are releasing a case study that will be available in the resources page where we can really understand what is a compliance program assessment and how can we use that to improve our compliance program and its activities.  

CJ: Yeah, and I'm glad you mentioned that and I'm glad you kind of mentioned the resources page as well over the years that has really turned into a library of resources, right? And I love the way Sarah's marketing team is, you know, divided up; compliance, auditing. I think this year we even maybe have a separate landing page for the many different webinars and assets that we produced specific to the OIG's new GCPG; General Compliance Program Guidance. And Brian, I know you and I are speaking in November in Washington DC. And I don't know if you looked at day two or maybe it's day three; OIG is going to be announcing their specialty-specific compliance guidance for nursing facilities. So, that landing page there is probably going to grow because it's kind of the new space, right? OIG has done a lot of great work historically, but they're now starting to generate some new information. And so, I think we're going to have some more work ahead of us to share with all our listeners. So, use that resources page, it's wonderful.  

So, Brian, maybe we'll end kind of with this question and then maybe have any parting shots from anybody else, if I am interested or if somebody who's listening is interested in a risk assessment, who can I contact? Do I just, should we list your private cell number here?  

Brian: Yeah, it's 61! No, seriously! Go to our resources page, you'll you can find the resources page were plenty of webinars. There's also a compliance services under the product section of the website. There are compliance services listed there. Any of our sales professionals would be happy to schedule a time with you. I think I have 3 calls next week with interested buyers, but reach us on the website. Call us at the 800 number. We will be happy to connect with you directly. Would love to understand what your organization's needs are, what type of compliance program are you managing today, and where would you like us to focus our objective reviewing? What might we be able to help you define as a growth opportunity? 

CJ: Yeah, awesome! And I can testify and give my glowing recommendation of the four people on the screen that have hair on their head, they are some of the best people to work with. They're kind, they're good, they're smart, and there are more people behind the scenes that you don't see here too that really good people there so, I highly recommend that you reach out when you have questions, concerns, and think you might need help.  

And so, before we close, let me just see, does anyone have any last-minute thoughts, maybe looking back, looking forward, what are we going to do for our 200th episode, Sarah? What thoughts? Let's maybe start with Sarah. We'll go the same way; Sarah, Debi, Remo, and Brian, if you having last-minute thoughts.  

Sarah: Oh, that sounds great! And I just want to say thank you for listening and it's great to work with you all. And you're right, CJ, there's so many people, you know, outside of the five of us who do so much and contribute so much. So, it's just a great group of people, small and mighty. And yeah, just happy to be here. So, thanks for having me.  

CJ: Thanks, Sarah! Oh, Debi, you're on mute!  

Debi: The Kitty cat was meowing!  

CJ: Oh, I want to hear the kitty! 

Debi: Anyway, you know, working at Healthicity is a great thing because we really can't take what in my mind has always been a very complex, convoluted, difficult-to-understand process and make it better. And that's true of both Auditing and Compliance Manager. Compliance, it's harder, you know, and incorporates many things, but the number of guidelines for coding and that kind of stuff continually changes. So, both of those, in my mind, are really complex areas that we do a good job at helping people figure out how to get through that. And, you know, in my career, most of the people have been nominated and not sought those positions, so it's a really great resource. 

CJ: Thank you! Remo, any last-minute thoughts?  

Remo: Well, first everything you said I would reiterate, but when I think about Healthicity, certainly our colleagues come to mind, but personally I'm just so grateful that our clients stay engaged with us, and I'm just surprised sometimes at the amount of time that they'll give us to really share their personal experience in their work days and how they use Compliance Manager and how it can be better, I'm just always impressed by that.  

CJ: Excellent! And Brian, you get the last word and then I do actually, but go ahead!  

Brian: I'm happy to share it with you. I can't wait to share the stage with you in Washington, DC that's going to be a ton of fun. I was able to say thank you to both Debi, Remo, and Sarah; all three excuse me, but CJ, you have been a consummate professional for us for many, many years, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for being our branded image, supporting the product, talking about our solutions, being there for us as a business for; gosh, it's been it has to be over 10 years now! Everyone knows you, and we're all grateful that you are investing in our success and participate and help us so much. You've been such a good mentor for me. I remember my first year here, I can't remember how many times I called and asked you questions. Thank you for all that you have done. You are a phenomenal resource, highly respected in the healthcare industry and we're grateful to have you here.  

CJ: Thank you very much! This is being recorded so I can play it back for my wife, right, Sarah? And I'll pay you later, Brian, thanks! 

Brian: That's right, dinner is on you! 

CJ: Okay, perfect! Well, thank you all for, first of all, our guests for their willingness to share their memories and the evolution, and thank you all to the listeners and the clients of course that is the most important people are. And I'll just put in one last plug, you know, we try to make the podcast as useful as possible. Please reach out to us if you have a topic that you'd like to hear about or if you have a guest that you think would be good. Let's keep this fresh. Let's keep the information what you need and we're just very grateful for all of you. And thank you all for listening to another episode until next time! Please take care! 

Brian: Until 200! 

Debi: Bye-bye!  

CJ: That's right!  

Brian: Bye, everyone! 

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